I wanted to share a thought. Yesterday as I was leaving. I was asked a question, Who created OSAS? My answer was God. Sadly I was in a hurry (I was already 5 minutes past the time I should have left) and did not give it more thought. But then on my way home. I was thinking. The word OSAS is not in the bible. So how can we say God created it. Also. I was asked to prove it in the bible.. How can I when the word or acronym (which is what it really is) is not in scripture.
Men created the acronym OSAS. God revealed the truth that those who are truly born again are kept by His power and will not finally perish.
Jesus said of His sheep, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” ~John 10:28. He also said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” and that He would “raise him up at the last day” ~John 6:37, 40. Believers are “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” ~Ephesians 1:13 and “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation” ~1 Peter 1:5.
However, Scripture does not teach that perseverance is a flawed idea based on human effort. Jesus said, “He that endureth to the end shall be saved” ~Matthew 24:13. Hebrews says, “We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end” ~Hebrews 3:14. Paul spoke of continuing “in the faith grounded and settled” ~Colossians 1:23.
Those passages do not mean believers earn salvation or keep themselves saved by works. They mean genuine faith continues because God is working in His people. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” ~Philippians 2:13. God preserves His people, and therefore His people persevere.
The phrase OSAS can be misleading when it is used to mean that anyone who once prayed a prayer or made a profession is secure regardless of whether he abandons Christ. Scripture gives no such assurance. Christ’s sheep hear His voice and follow Him ~John 10:27. Those who permanently depart reveal that their profession was not genuine: “They went out from us, but they were not of us” ~1 John 2:19.
So the biblical conclusion is not merely, “Once saved, always saved.” It is this: those whom Christ truly saves, He keeps, and those whom He keeps continue in faith. Their continuance does not purchase salvation. It demonstrates the reality of God’s saving work.
The anger surrounding this subject does not prove either side. “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” ~James 1:20. The answer is not Calvinism, Arminianism, or slogans. The answer is to let all the relevant Scriptures speak and refuse to remove either God’s keeping power or the necessity of genuine, continuing faith.
